Oscillating hand-chain guides



operate hoisting-Wheels. 30,

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ALFRED BOX, .OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA,

OSCILLATING HAND-CHAIN GUIDES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 225,330, dated March 9, 1880.

Application led August 29, 1879.

To all 'whom it may concern.:

Be it known that I, ALFRED BOX, of the city of Philadelphia, in the State of Pennsylvania, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Oscillating Hand-Chain Guides for Hoisting Apparatus, of which the following is a specification.

The subject of my invention is an oscillating guide-frame having bearings on the shaft of the hand-chain wheel on each side of the latter, and carrying bell-shaped guides, through which the hand-chain passes, permitting 'the deflection of the chain Without reducing the amount of chain on the wheel, and insuring the correct guiding of the chain in all positions.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure l is a front elevation of the device, showing the hand-chain in deflected position. Fig. 2 is a plan. Fig. 3 is a perspective view of the oscillating guide-frame detached.

A represents a hand-chain Wheel, operated by a chain, B, and running on a shaft, C, which may bca stud-shaft, as shown, the wheels A, having cogs, driving the screw-shaft by means of a pinion; or, it' preferred, the shaft C may be a screw-shaft keyed in the wheel. The screw-shaft, in either case, is employed to (Not shown.)

D D represent the two sides of my oscillating guide-frame, having their bearings on the shaft on each side of the wheel A, and carrying at their respective ends bellmouthed guides E E, which form the extremities ofthe guide-frame. The entire guide D D E E is preferably made in a single casting.

My improved hand chain-guide oscillates, as shown in Fig. l, on the center aXis of the hand-chain wheel, but allows the chain to be drawn from the wheel at any angle without binding against the guard or guide.

The effect of the deflection of the chain is to deect the guide to any required position, so as to relieve it of all strain, while the guide causes the chain to hug thewheel closely and keep the same amount of effective chain on the Wheel when itis in any deccted position. It is applicable to any wheel where a hand-chain is used, but specially to portable hoists. It enables the man operating it to keep from under the load. The guide, being adapted to follow the chain without resistance in either direction, is 'always on duty, and protects the hand-chain wheel from danger of breakage or injury, thus constituting a most effective guard to the wheel. i

I am aware that hoisting pulley-blocks have been provided with radial arms, carrying guiderollers at their outer ends to keep the hoisting-chain in place on either side, and hlnged to the shaft independently of each other, so as to have a limited movement. This, therefore, I do not claim.

My'invention is essentially different from that referred to in constituting an effective guide for a hand-chain wheel when in any deflected position, dispensing with the need of grooved guide-pulleys and adapting the handvchain to operate on the wheel as well in de- E E, and having its bearings on a shaft,.C, on,

each side of a hand-chain wheel, A, as shown and described, and` adapted to keep the same amount of effective chain on the Wheel when it is in deflected position.

ALFRED BOX.

Witnesses: V

THEO. DE L. SMITH, WM. A. SMITH. 

